Gay U.S. Skier Calls Thumb Injury a ‘Silver Lining,’ Since He Won’t Be Able to Shake VP Pence’s Hand

Of all the things that we have learned during the 2018 Winter Olympics, one thing remains clear: Vice President Mike Pence is living rent free in the heads of two openly gay Team USA athletes.

In addition to the well-publicized and completely one-sided feud between U.S. figure skater Adam Rippon, and Mike Pence. We can now add the completely unprovoked Thursday tweet from gay Olympian Gus Kenworthy.

Kenworthy announced on Twitter that he broke his thumb during practice. He also said that the injury would not prevent him from competing in events. Yet, the injury would prevent him from shaking hands with Vice President Mike Pence:

Broke my thumb yesterday in practice. It won't stop me from competing (obvi) but it does prevent me from shaking Pence's hand so… Silver linings! Will be giving my teammates (and literally everyone else) an enthusiastic "thumbs up!" of encouragement the rest of the trip. pic.twitter.com/XylPPGAq9P

What’s also “obvi” is that Kenworthy and Rippon are obsessed with turning the Olympics into a showcase for LGBT politics. Kenworthy and Rippon are the first two openly gay athletes to represent the U.S. in the Winter Olympics.

Since the early stages of Team USA’s preparations to go to South Korea, the two athletes have taken unprovoked shots at Pence, who was picked to lead the U.S. delegation.

Rippon began the feud by making unsubstantiated claims that Pence had supported gay conversion therapy. When Pence reached out to Rippon to meet and talk about these issues, Rippon used a variety of excuses to say he would not meet with the VP.

Rippon also attacked Pence’s Christian faith. Rippon told USA Today, “To stand by some of the things that Donald Trump has said and for Mike Pence to say he’s a devout Christian man is completely contradictory.”

Kenworthy spoke out against the selection of Pence to lead the U.S. delegation during an appearance on the Ellen Degeneres Show.

“To have somebody leading the delegation that’s directly attacked the LGBTQ community, and a Cabinet in general that just sort of stands against us and has tried to do things to set us back, it just seems like a bad fit.”

Rippon and Kenworthy also put a picture of themselves on Instagram, live from the Winter Olympic “Gaymes.” In which they told Pence to eat his heart out.

Rippon has said he will not attend the White House Olympic ceremony, if invited.